Ibuprofen is a well-known therapeutic agent. Its therapeutic activities include analgesia and anti-pyretic attack. As with most medicines, one of the difficulties with ibuprofen is in making it palatable to children. This difficulty has been overcome with most medicines by preparing formulations such as syrups and drops. The present invention relates to chewable tablets that are palatable to children and a process for making the tablets.
From a manufacturing cost standpoint, it is desirable to have chewable, taste-masked microcapsules that are large (0.25-1 mm in diameter), because larger microcapsules are easier to manufacture and package, and are less expensive to produce than are small microcapsules. However, an increase in size makes fracture during chewing and the release of drug from the microcapsule more likely to occur especially when there is an inadequate amount of plasticizer or other component included to provide elasticity. A larger sized microcapsule requires greater elasticity to minimize the likelihood that a fracture will occur and active agent will be released. There is therefore a need in the art of pharmaceutical formulation to provide encapsulating coatings capable of being formulated into chewable microcapsules as large as about 1.5 mm. that will not release drugs during chewing.